Race Report: University Road Race 2023 - Men's E3
Race: University Road Race - Men’s Cat 3
Date: 8/20/2023
AVRT racers: Flo Costa, George Wehner
Top Results: Flo 4/23
Course: 40 miles, 5200 ft of climbing - 15 laps around the UCSC circuit, featuring a 5 min climb followed by a 3 min descent. Essentially a 15 x 5’ min threshold workout.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9688243169
Nutrition: Clif Bloks and gels with malto + gatorade in the bottles.
Race Recap: After racing at San Ardo the previous day, George and I lined up at UCSC ready to test our climbing legs. Our tactics for University RR were straightforward: follow the group, survive the climb, and don’t blow up. We had a decent sized field with 23 riders at the start, many of whom were strong climbers. As tradition for University RR, we were on the lookout for any junior w/kg monsters.
The first couple laps were relatively calm with a few riders taking flyers up the final kicker on the top of the climb only to be caught within the first 30 seconds of the descent. In an effort to preserve my legs, I tried to smoothen my power as much as possible every time we went up this last kicker. My gameplan was to conserve as much energy as possible for the final laps.
On the third lap, there were attacks from the base of the climb which strung out the group. This time up the climb was an especially painful VO2 effort knowing we had 12 more laps to go. Thankfully these moves were brought back and the pace eased up for the next few laps as we settled into a low threshold pace. We dropped a couple riders here and there, but overall the group stayed together during the middle part of the race.
With 8 laps to go, solo rider Josef took the front and started pacing the climb. The pace wasn’t infernal, but it was enough to string out the group. Josef continued to set the pace for the next few laps, each time pushing slightly harder than the previous. At the top of every climb, I looked around to assess everyone’s level of comfort, which deteriorated as we repeated this effort.
With 3 laps to go my legs started feeling really heavy. At this point the pace had increased quite a bit.. Thankfully the descents served as an excellent opportunity to catch my breath and eat/drink. With 2 laps to go, the group was down to maybe 8 riders. As we started the climb, the group accelerated once again at the base of the hill. At this point I was well positioned in third wheel, but was giving everything I had to follow the riders in front of me. Halfway up the climb, Josef launched an attack which completely shattered what was left of the group. I tried to go after him but couldn’t follow. Only a junior from Team California was able to follow the move, and in a few moments the two of them were out of reach. In the descent, I was joined by two other riders.
The three of us worked together up the final climb, but weren’t able to make a dent in the gap to the two riders ahead. We were also too gassed to attack each other, which meant we would be “sprinting” for third place. In the finishing straight, the Pen Velo rider found himself on the front and launched his sprint a bit early. I stayed in his wheel until the other rider opened his sprint and came around us. I quickly launched after him, but didn’t have the punch to come around him. I finished fourth on the day, missing out on the top 3, but was still proud with how the race played out for me at this painfully fun race.
Thanks for reading,
Flo